Brown immortalized by Kings' statue, induction into U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame

Dustin Brown received a call from Luc Robitaille on May 15, 2022, the day after his NHL career ended.

The forward had announced his decision to retire, the Los Angeles Kings had lost to the Edmonton Oilers in seven games in the Western Conference First Round, and the Kings president wanted to see him.

When Brown arrived at his office, Robitaille told him Los Angeles would retire his No. 23 and unveil a statue of him in front of the arena.

A statue?

“I go, like, ‘Luc, who has statues out there?’” Brown said. “And he’s like, ‘In general? Or, like, hockey players?’ ‘Let’s just start with hockey players.’ He goes, ‘Well, me and Wayne.’”

Brown reminded Robitaille he was a legend. "Wayne" was Wayne Gretzky.

“I just said, ‘I’m not going to lie,’” Brown said. “‘I’m a little uncomfortable.’”

Robitaille reminded Brown he had done something twice that Robitaille and Gretzky hadn’t done once with the Kings: win the Stanley Cup.

“In that moment,” Brown said, “it felt good.”

Brown wasn’t a generational talent. He was cut from a select team representing the state of New York at age 15, and after a quick rise as a prospect, he found he needed to make it in the pros with grit.

Yet he spent his entire 18-season NHL career with one team and was Los Angeles' all-time leader in games played (1,296) when he retired. (Center Anze Kopitar is now No. 1 at 1,313.) He was captain from 2008-16, leading them to the Cup in 2012 and 2014. He received the Mark Messier Leadership Award after the second championship.

He ranks seventh among United States-born players in NHL games played and was the second American to captain a Cup winner, after defenseman Derian Hatcher of the Dallas Stars in 1999.

He represented the U.S. in the Olympics twice (2010 and 2014), the IIHF World Championship four times (2004, 2006, 2008 and 2009) and the IIHF World Junior Championship twice (2002 and 2003), winning silver in 2010 and bronze in 2004.

And so, he'll be inducted into the United States Hockey Hall of Fame with Brian Burke, Katie King Crowley, Jamie Langenbrunner and Brian Murphy at a ceremony in Boston on Wednesday.

The Kings retired Brown’s number and unveiled his statue Feb. 11. The statue sums up his legacy. He is holding up the Cup in Los Angeles.

“I was a good player,” Brown said. “I played my game. But I was just part of a really special group, and I was maybe the face of the group during that very successful time, and Luc said it best: ‘You did something we couldn’t do.’

“Talking about it now, it still makes me feel uncomfortable, but I’m still very extremely proud of it.”

* * * *

Brown learned how to skate by pushing a chair around a covered outdoor rink at Cass Park in Ithaca, New York. He also played baseball and lacrosse, but there was just something about the feel of the ice.

“If it was a hockey practice or a lacrosse practice, I was always wanting to go to the hockey practice,” he said. “I think inherently the skating makes hockey fun, even when all you’re doing is getting skated. I kind of fell in love with the skating part of it.”

When he didn’t make the select team representing the state of New York at age 15, Brown didn’t go to a national tournament and wasn’t on the radar of the USA Hockey National Team Development Program. He had no idea where he was headed.

“People don’t believe me when I say this,” he said, “but I didn’t even know what the Ontario Hockey League was.”

After he had 53 points (33 goals, 21 assists) in 24 games in his second season at Ithaca High, Brown was selected by Guelph in the second round (No. 26) of the 2000 OHL Priority Selection. He received an offer from the NTDP but had already signed a junior contract.

Back then, he wasn’t physical. His first game for Guelph, he hadn’t turned 16 yet, and an opponent had a full beard. He put up big offensive numbers in three seasons in the OHL and represented the United States twice in the World Juniors.

“I went from not making it in New York to being one of the best kids in the country within a year,” he said, “so it kind of all happened very fast for me.”

Brown was selected by the Kings with the No. 13 pick in the 2003 NHL Draft. He played for Los Angeles as a rookie in 2003-04, then spent a season with Manchester of the American Hockey League during the 2004-05 NHL lockout.

“It was terrible for hockey,” he said, “but it was great for me.”

It allowed him to develop in the minors with no pressure, and though he had 74 points (29 goals, 45 assists) in 79 games, it made him the player he would become when he returned to the NHL the following season.

“I remember my first few weeks in the AHL,” he said. “It dawned on me pretty quick, like, ‘Yeah, I’m not going to be able to score 40 here. What can I do to stay in the lineup?’ You see my first few years (in the NHL). I’m a bowling ball out there. That became part of my identity. It gave me space.”

* * * *

It’s not like Brown didn’t have skill in the NHL. He had 60 points (33 goals, 27 assists) in 78 games in 2007-08, and he scored at least 20 goals in a season seven times. But this is a guy who had 3,632 hits, third in NHL history.

“He wasn’t afraid of anything,” said Stars defenseman Ryan Suter, who played against Brown in the NHL and with him for the U.S. “He’d run you through a wall whether you were teammates or buddies with him, and then after, obviously, everything was fine. I think it took a toll on his body over time, just being as physical as he was.”

Kings defenseman Drew Doughty, Brown’s roommate on the road, said Brown needed a special board under his mattress to make the bed hard. Brown would stretch and ask Doughty to crack his back.

“I saw all the pain he went through,” Doughty said. “… When you see your captain doing whatever it takes to play on the ice to help his teammates, that trickles through. It’s pretty amazing that he could play that physical with how injured he was, to be honest.”

Brown earned respect from teammates and opponents alike.

“Just a high-character guy,” said Dallas forward Joe Pavelski, who, like Suter, played against Brown in the NHL and with him for the U.S. “Led by example. One attribute to his game is, you knew what you were going to get from him. He played a hard game. He was physical going to the net. He added that physicality from his game, and he also had that offensive touch to score along the way.”

He did it all.

“I think there’s a lot more obviously to ‘Brownie’ than just hitting,” Kopitar said. “He had the knack to make a big play when it really matters the most, whether that was get in front of a puck, hit somebody or make a play in the last minute of the game just so we could win by one goal. He was on the ice in every situation, and rightfully so.”

Brown has few regrets.

He never won gold for the United States. When the world junior team won gold in 2004 in Finland, he was eligible to play but already in the NHL. He was an alternate captain for the Olympic team in 2010 for an overtime loss to Canada in the gold medal game in Vancouver and in 2014 for a semifinal loss to Canada in the semifinals in Sochi.

He said that is one of the things he has reflected upon ahead of his United States Hockey Hall of Fame induction. For years, he didn’t appreciate his Olympic experiences because of the losses. But now, he realizes it’s some of the best hockey he ever got to play.

“The opportunity to represent your country in a moment like that, regardless of the outcome, it’s something that I think you appreciate more with time,” he said.

He said his mind often drifts to the loss in Vancouver. But if he’s ever feeling down, all he has to do is look up as his statue in Los Angeles.

“I mean, you win two Stanley Cups,” he said, laughing, “your mind drifts there a lot too.”

NHL.com independent correspondents Taylor Baird and Dan Greenspan contributed to this report